Getting “inside the sound” is a phrase that I’ve used with musicians in many different settings. I mean by this strange phrase that we are to give ourselves to the piece of music on which we are working. We are learning its ebbs and flows, its nuances, and its reasons for rising and falling. We are willing to play, or not to play, according to the needs of the song in its context.

This is getting “inside the sound”; and it is a necessary step that every musician must take before we can truly make beautiful music together.

In this issue of Inside Worship, we get inside the sound… of music. Author and scholar Jeremy Begbie takes us on an-other forward journey into the heart of sound in Sound The-ology II, and music’s effect on the sound of the heart in us. Musician and producer Mark Young continues his reflections on how to make arrangements of music that not only sound good – but also create a space for our communities to engage in loving worship before God.

Finally, a reminder that our new format is intended to be a handbook for keeping on your shelf beside other issues of In-side Worship. Read this issue cover to cover for rich insights into the gift of worship, and don’t forget to get “inside the sound” the next time you lift your voice to God in worship.

Inside The Sound

In the contemporary postmodern climate, we are frequently encouraged to live on the lowest level alone – in “flat time” – typically with only little short-term microhopes, one day at a time. We dare not hope for anything too great in the long term; nor, many would say, do we know how to hope for anything in the long term. With the so-called death of the meta-narrative (the big stories that have governed Western culture – for example, Christianity, Marx-ism, the myth of human progress), we can settle only for microhopes, stretch-ing a lifespan at the most. To be drawn into the waves of God means that our lives are set in the context not of a linear path (of progress, perhaps?), but of a multileveled hope that covers a huge range of timescales. There may be very small waves at work – the little short-term routines of our lives, for ex-ample – but we live in the confidence that even these can be taken up in the longer-reaching purposes of God, the wide and vast waves of God’s music.

It makes us wait: We can look at one further form of musical tension with strong gospel overtones: delay – when an expected or desired fulfillment is held up, either in whole or in part. The handling of delay is a crucial musi-cal skill. Musicians are adept at setting up expectations that are deliberately

deferred through a myriad of devices: di-versions, digressions, pauses and so on. In-deed, maintaining the “not yet” of resolution through deferred gratification is generally reckoned to be one of the most important things to be learned by any composer, and among the most critical features of musical structure. For a rock song or a symphony, a ballet score or a ballad, much depends on handling the space between tensions and postponed resolutions in ways that can sat-isfy the desire for resolution while also being open-ended enough to sustain the expecta-tion of, and desire for, more.

A simple example can be found in a piece learned by every beginner and encased in millions of telephone answering machines – Für Elise, by Beethoven. On the first page, the composer inserted two extra bars just be-fore the main melody returns – gratification is deferred, with the result that we are pulled into the piece that much more intensely. (This is one reason why the piece is much harder than its sounds, as many a ten-year-old has found out.)

Much more sophisticated is the second move-ment of Brahms’s Second Symphony, where only at the very end are we given the main key chord stably and unambiguously on a strong beat. John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme provides another good example. In The Anat-omy of Jazz, Leroy Ostransky observes:

“What distinguishes superior creative musi-cians from the mediocre ones of all periods is

the manner in which they create resolutions, and to create resolutions it is necessary to set up irresolutions.... Poor and mediocre jazzmen ... often do not understand that the quality of their jazz will depend not on any resolution, however elaborate, but rather on the inherent intricacy of the irresolution.”

The theme of delay is, of course, very com-mon in scripture – there is a sense among the writers that things are being in some man-ner held back, whether the final fulfillment of God’s purposes or the closer, short-term fulfillments. “How long, O Lord?” is not just the wail of the psalmist but the howl of God’s people over and over again down through the disillusioning years of Israel’s history. When will Yahweh put his world to rights? When will this supposedly just God vindi-cate his people and scatter their enemies? How can we keep hoping in the midst of unresolved dissonance? And even after the climactic resolution in Christ, a new sense of delay is evident, classically expressed in Romans 8: the whole creation “groans” as it awaits fulfillment (v. 23). The meantime de-mands patience: “If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (v. 25).

Far from being empty or pernicious, however, this in-between time is, Paul and others be-lieve, potentially rich and enlarging. The rais-ing of Jesus has anticipated the final general resurrection, and through the Spirit we have a foretaste of that dazzling future resurrection

age here and now (Rom. 8:9-11). This is the same Spirit who is active deep within creation and the church, struggling to bring about in the world what has already been achieved in Christ (Rom. 8:17-30). The Spirit can enlarge us in the very waiting, within and through the apparently circuitous, mysterious and painful process of deferred fulfillment.

Because of its multilevel wave structure, and because there is always a wave reaching for-ward at a higher level, and there are enough downbeats to remind us of that, music has the power to introduce us to just this kind of enriching meantime and help us understand more deeply what it means to wait on God. This is most evident in silence.

In one of her songs, Alanis Morissette sings about “The conflicts, the craziness and the sound of pretenses / Falling all around ... all around.” Then she challenges us: “Why are you so petrified of silence? Here can you handle this?” And the music suddenly stops.

Why are we so petrified by silence? Pre-sumably because we think nothing happens in silence. Silence is void, emptiness, blank space. But music s metrical waves extend even through silence. We can sense them even when there is no music. This is how pieces of music can include so much silence; the space is not empty, and a skillful compos-er will know how to make that very clear.

The opening of the theme music of Jaws generates its edge-of-the-seat terror largely

through silence. The final bars of Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony are, in essence, silence punc-tuated by six chords, creating a remarkably intense longing for resolution. These silences sound charged because of the memory of what has been and the anticipation of what will be, so we are pulled in and held in. Even in the most numbing of silences, when God’s absence seems most deadening, the raising of the crucified Jesus from the dead sends a wave arcing through the silence to resurrec-tion day, and by the Spirit we can catch it and sense it – and the silence can live. That is how countless Christians have managed to endure in the most hopeless of circumstances – in prison, torture, mental illness, acute loss.

In this light, it is disappointing, to say the least, that deferred gratification is so rare in much of today’s music for worship – and I include both traditional and contemporary music – and in some respects it is also sur-prising, given music’s astonishing powers to embody the kind of delay that is so basic to authentic Christian faith.

Simultaneously sounding notes, and the mu-sic arising from them, can witness a form of togetherness in which there is an overlap of spaces out of which comes mutual en-richment and enhancement, and a form of togetherness that can be sensed first and foremost as a gift, not a consequence of indi-vidual choices.

During a recent visit to South Africa, a number of times I sang the national anthem, “Nkosi

Sikelel’ iAfrika.” Wherever I sang it, it evoked in me an extraordinary sense of togetherness, even though I hardly knew the hymn and often barely knew the people with whom I was singing. Part of the reason for that, no doubt, was that I knew that this song had held thousands together during the fierce decades of apartheid. Part of it was the tremendous welcome I received at most of the assemblies where I sang it. But a large part of it was also its four-part harmony, in which no vocal line predominates over the others (unlike the Brit-ish national anthem, for example).

Sing this anthem in South Africa and, in keep-ing with a wide range of African music, it will instantly be sung in harmony. Your voice and all the others fill the same heard space. It is a space not of a hundred separate voices each with their mutually exclusive and bounded place but a space of overlapping sounds, an un-crowded, expansive space without clear edges, where distinct voices mutually estab-lish and enhance one another.

Why was solidarity in South Africa so often expressed in harmonious song during the years of oppression? Among the many rea-sons, I suggest, is that when crowds met to sing – in townships, churches, marches – the music provided a taste of authentic freedom, when in virtually every other sense they were not free. Why is it that freedom and recon-ciliation have so often been celebrated in this kind of singing? Partly, I believe, because people are experiencing a kind of concord that can embody the kind of freedom in rela-tion to others – even our enemies – that God has made possible.

It is extremely frustrating to worship lead-ers when everybody wants to play – jumping in from the very first bar. It is a sign of musical immaturity to want to do this, and we need to learn how to train our players to develop a sense of dynamics. Having dynamics essentially means hav-ing loud and soft parts in your music.

One way to build dynamics successfully is to build with layers. Listen to contemporary worship CDs and you will find there are many ways of doing this, but no song stays at the same volume from beginning to end. Why? Because this is boring to the ear. You want the music to enhance and con-tribute to people worshipping. It is not just the lyrics that are important in worship song – otherwise we would just read poems when we gather.

Why is music so powerful? Because it connects with our emo-tions. The sound, volume, and intensity of the music all con-tribute to the congregations’ response. This is why music that has dynamics will have a stronger spiritual impact.

We also need to have the courage to tell our band members to cease playing when it is not appropriate. We need to have the vocabulary to explain to them what they need to do. For example, you might say:

1st verse – “I’d like just acoustic guitar here (light strum) and a keyboard pad1st chorus – “I’d like the bass and guitar come in with whole notes; drums can do cymbal swells2nd verse – “I’d like the drums and bass come in with time, acoustic guitar – heavier strum, electric guitar – still whole notes but with overdrive.”

These are all terms with which you need to be familiar to communicate better with your band.

For electric guitar, which plays a huge role in the arrangement of modern worship songs, sometimes it’s better to ask them to play like a certain band, or guitar player or to reference a specific song. For example if I ask my electric guitar player to “Give me some Coldplay-type arpeggios,” or some ”U2-type delay” they should know what to do.

Another element that affects dy-namics is the volume of each instrument. A good drummer, for example, knows how to play to the room: i.e. If the room is bigger he/she plays louder, if it’s smaller, he/she plays softer.

Drum volume is one of the biggest issues with bands in church and ministry settings. Many times it is the cymbals that are too loud – and when that is the case the sound person has lost control over those cymbals in the mix. If you have amps on stage, it is the same. If the guitar player’s amp volume is making others uncomfortable, or if the sound person takes it completely out of the mains and it’s still too loud, then they need to turn it down.

This all goes back to humility, and putting the preferences of others ahead of your own. I know that guitar amps sound better when they are louder – but when the stage volume is out of whack, the sound person has no control over the mix.

One way to look at a song’s sound is as a pie, where each band member plays their slice and the sum of all the parts equals “1”. Brian Doerksen calls this the Fraction Principle. For example,

if you have a 5 piece band each member should only play a fifth of what they would play if they were the only one playing.

We need to give the music room to breathe. Using the Fraction Principle is also a way to make sure each instrument contributes its own flavor to the overall sound. One way to get the band to buy in to this principle is to ask each one to contribute to creating their partic-ular role. That way they will feel they “own” the part – and will play it with confidence.

As Brian Doerksen puts it, “This is part of ma-turing as a musician. The most professional of bands and players understand, and intuitively obey this principle.”

One thing you can do to aid this process is to encourage the band members to listen to CDs in the style or genre of the music you do at your church. Tell them to listen to how the parts interact. This is especially critical for electric guitar players, because they are a huge part of the arrangement in modern worship. If everybody is playing “full on” throughout the entire song, nobody will be able to appreciate the different parts.

We know the drums are a rhythm instrument. So, if the acoustic guitar is also playing a rhythm part, that is probably all you need in the rhythm department. If you have a keyboard, then, they should be play-ing a pad, or a part that is not also rhythmic.

If it’s a piano driven song, and the piano is playing an arpeggio-type part, then the gui-tar shouldn’t also be playing an arpeggio.

The drummer and guitar player need to be listening to each other so that the rhythm they are playing doesn’t clash. The guitarist can listen to the hi-hat and lock into that for the groove. In the same way the bass player needs to key off the kick drum.

Another way to look at the sonic spectrum is through what frequencies each instrument occupies. The goal is to distribute your instruments across the frequency range so that each occupies its own space.

For example, if you have two guitars you don’t want them to be playing exactly the same chords in the same positions. Tell one of them to play higher up the neck, or to use a capo.

Basically there are many instruments compet-ing for the mid frequency range – i.e. 3 vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboard, piano, electric gui-tar and the occasional bass player venturing up there as well. So, you need to spread them apart. It is for this reason in guitar-driven music that the keyboard typically uses pads or organ sounds, instead of piano.

If you have a keyboard player that comes from a more traditional background, one of the first things you need to tell them is this: put your left hand in your pocket. A traditional player will tend to play the bass with their left hand – but the bass player is already playing those notes!

This all boils down to the musicians asking themselves the question: “What is right for me to play for this arrange-ment? The answer to that question might

mean putting their ego aside to play a mini-malist part in the song. After all, we are here to serve – not to show others what a great musician I am.

Music is made up of notes and rests. Some-times, one can contribute more to the ar-rangement musically by choosing what not to play.

Brenton Brown once said: “It’s not the notes you play – we don’t need to play all the way through the song, or all the way through the set! Making space is just as important, if not more important, than filling space. When was the last time you sat out of a song?”

If you visit the new www.In-sideWorship.com, you’ll find a fresh world of resources for strengthening your lo-cal worship experience. For years we became one of your favorite resource websites – now, we’re at it again!

The Inside Worship Podcast focuses on emerging songs and song stories “from the Church, for the Church”. Each podcast features a new song, an exclusive interview with the songwriter and a downloadable PDF chord sheet of the featured song. In addition to the song and song story highlight, each podcast will address various issues in our modern wor-ship culture – from the very practical to the deeper issues of the heart, as well as theo-logical discussions and a bit of humor thrown in from time to time.

The Inside Worship Podcast is hosted by Casey Corum (worship leader and execu-tive producer) and Robbie Reider (worship leader and associate producer).

The Inside Worship Podcast is brought to you by Vineyard Music – a non-profit, church-based worship ministry. By imparting the heart and ac-tivity of worship through music, events and resources, we encourage people every-where to pursue a deeper re-lationship with God.

As well, click on the “Resources” tab, and you’ll find a treasure box of liter-ally hundreds of Vineyard worship articles, teachings, videos and other worship resources. www.InsideWor-ship.com is once again aim-ing at furthering the privi-lege of worship around the globe.

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If we want to grow in the scriptural breadth of the material that we pres-ent in worship, we must ask ourselves – “Am I giving voice to the sadness and pain that my church is experi-encing?” At any one time, there are people in all of our churches who are going through really rough times. A bankruptcy in their business, cancer, a chronically ill child, or losing a baby in a miscarriage. These heart-rending experiences are all happen-ing in my church right now.

We talk a lot about honesty in wor-ship. We do our best to be honest about our own sin before God. We know that honesty is a non-negotia-ble in worship. Without it, we don’t have real worship.

Another expression of honesty is the lament. Some people classify up to 70% of the Psalms as laments. Why would God see fit to include so many laments in the Psalms? I believe it is because suffering is part of the hu-man condition. To be human is to suffer loss of all kinds.

Henri Nouwen, in his book With Burning Hearts points out several categories of loss that are common to all kinds of people: “The loss of intimacy through separations, the loss of safety through violence, the loss of innocence through abuse, the loss of friends through betrayal, the loss of love through abandonment…

the loss of children through illness or accidents.”

As worship leaders, we have a tre-mendous opportunity to help people be honest with God and to pour out their grief over these losses. Does God really want us to let out our grief and disappointment in the midst of worship? Judging by the content of the Psalms, I think He does. He is neither shocked or offended when we tell Him how we really feel.

For Worship Leaders Only: Psalm and Lament